I personally love McCoy, who happens to be one of the favourite Doctors of the classic series. I feel that some of the issues with pacing that the classic series had (due to simply being a product of its time) were fixed somewhat during his and Colin Baker's run. To put it simply, as much as I love the classic series, the episodes are not meant to be watched in a marathon. For example, as much as I love Talons of Weng-Chiang, I need to take breaks in between episodes to prevent me from getting bored. I feel McCoy's era is the easiest to watch episodes back to back, as I was able to finish episodes like Remembrance of the Daleks and The Curse of Fenric (my personal favourite 7th Doctor story) in one sitting. And unlike a person above me, I am a huge fan of the Happiness Patrol. The story is so dark, yet the darkness is hidden under a saccharine exterior, much like the government of Terra Alpha in the story itself.
And who can hate the sniper scene, which was very well done.
As much as disliked Mel in the classic series, her role in Big Finish redeemed her for me. I find her character much more bearable on rewatch after listening to the audios. Her first audio, The Fires of Pompeii, remains a great story and is one of the best historical audios.
Speaking of which, although it probably won't happen, I really want to see a historical episode in the Series 8. I mean pure historical, as in; no monsters, no sci-fi (with the exception of the Doctor and the TARDIS), and just having the characters get caught up in history. Dang you, BBC, with your rule that there must be a monster every episode. It hurt Father's Day, and Love and Monsters (which IMO is a great episode until the monster shows up, where it then heads into "meh" territory.) So yeah, here's hoping for a pure historical.
